Despite the end of the high definition disc war with HD DVD Blu-ray has not turned in to the runaway success Sony would like it to be. Recently though there have been signs Blu-ray is finally seeing signs of quantifiable success.

In Britain Futuresource reports consumers bought 462,500 Blu-ray discs in November, an increase of 165% from October. In France, Blu-ray's share of the optical disc market is expected to double next year to 6%. In Europe, overall Blu-ray player sales are expected to reach 2.5 million units in 2009 without including the PlayStation 3.

In Japan, research firm GFK Retail and Technology reports Blu-ray disc recorders have surpassed 50% market share a significant increase from October 2007 when Blu-ray disc recorders accounted for only 10% of the market. GFK also reports Blu-ray is replacing DVD 1.5 times faster than DVD replaced VHS.

The hybrid disc is intended to speed the transition to Blu-ray technology and was introduced nearly four years ago. The disc conforms to specifications released by the Blu-ray Disc Association for the "Blu-ray Disc, Hybrid Format". Infiniti storage media claims that it achieves a compatibility of 99% according to tests made on 64 Blu-ray and DVD players.

Comments

Threshold

Username

Password

remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Depends who you are talking to about being desirable. I for one think it is unneeded and will easily/quickly be replaced by digital downloads before full adoption. Up to $39 for a movie? I will barely pay $15 which I still think is overpriced. This is a format being pushed on consumers ahead of its time. I personally can barely tell the difference in performance quality and I still record shows on tv in standard definition vice HD because the size versus quality just doesn't make sense on my HDTV.

In his scenario, he says that he hopes it won't drop in price cause then movies will eventually only be released in Bluray. If it gets to that point, then things will be cheaper. Don't pretend like you don't get that. You won't pay $15 for Bluray? DVDs are that much. Seriously, who hopes something won't get cheaper?

If you can't tell the difference, you have a junk TV or bad eyes, cause the numbers don't lie. That is like saying your 15" 1280X1024 is fine cause you can't see the difference between it and a 24" 1900X1200 resolution monitor.

When you can start downloading Bluray quality movies all the time, let me know how many you get a year. Meanwhile normal people will be renting or buying Bluray movies and actually enjoying the movie rather than trying to download it. Most of you people who want digital downloads want them so you can pirate them anyway.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA